A Warped Mirror
by Saidre
Summary: Twelve humans and a mysterious entity which only exists on as a reflection are given tools with which to wage war for a wish. The shadow war, fought only in reflections, has begun. Who will survive?
1. Prologue: The Thirteen

Author's Note:

This is my attempt at a re-imagining of Kamen Rider Ryuki. I am using an original character and Abyss in place of the godly Odin, who would ruin the whole story in the way I see the universe. I realize this chapter may suffer from character clutter, but the thinning will be quick. I have the story planned out, give or take a little, and this, if my attention span holds, should span 13 chapters, excluding this prologue. This is my first submission, so all constructive criticism is welcome. Thanks in advance.

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Thirteen men stood, concealed from each other by shadow, in a circle in the most grotesque of shrines. Kanzaki's Mirror Cathedral hidden away in a pocket of the mirror world. Kanzaki, standing in the lighted center of the room, motioned the men's attention to what lay on the table next to him. Little cases, it appeared, each of varying color or design. "You are now conscripts in my war," Shiro began. He silenced the buzz that arose at this announcement with another declaration, "The winner of my war shall receive one wish. They will have anything they want. And you, you thirteen, have been chosen to fight for this honor." He motioned to the table, and thirteen creatures seemed now to hover above the devices. "These creatures have selected you. If you accept, you become the champion of one of them, and wage war with it at your side. Should you decline, you become your selector's prey. Another will be selected to take your place."

One of the shadows seemed to back away, but stopped short when a draconic roar sounded behind him. Another spoke up, this one seemingly more eager than the last: "Sounds like fun. Give me mine." Kanzaki, seemingly unfazed by the man's lack of propriety, picked up the purple item and tossed it to him.

"You are now Kamen Rider Ouja. That advent deck is your contract, now permanently binding. All of you would do well to remember that. If you fail to uphold your end, or should you destroy the contract, the contracted monster will no longer uphold its end, either." They knew the rules now. Or, at least, all the ones he cared to tell them. The gold enforcer would make the others clear as the war went on.

The others readily voiced their consent. All but one. The man who the dragon had threatened still stood, unarmed, uncontracted, concealed in shadow. Kanzaki grew impatient, and the hungry dragon sounded again. Hesitantly, he signed himself over. Shiro did not give them time for questions, and began his farewell speech to them as he tossed the last man his deck. "You thirteen are now enemies, sworn to fight each other, die at each other's hands. So, it is only fair that you know each other's faces." Twelve men were illuminated, the last remaining in shadow.

He wasted no time in naming them, for the men could not remain much longer. He motioned to each as he came to them: "Miyuki Tezuka - Kamen Rider Raia, Masahi Sudou - Kamen Rider Scissors, Itsuro Takamizawa - Kamen Rider Verde, Misturu Sano - Kamen Rider Imperer, Ren Akiyama - Kamen Rider Knight, Takeshi Asakura - Kamen Rider Ouja, Shinji Kido - Kamen Rider Ryuki, Miho Kirishima - Kamen Rider Femme, Sokoyu Aizou - Kamen Rider Abyss, Jun Shibaura - Kamen Rider Gai, Satoru Tojo - Kamen Rider Taiga, Kitaoka Shuichi - Kamen Rider Zolda, and finally," this said while directing their attention to the veiled man, "The Man in the Mirror - Kamen Rider Ryuga."

"So now what?" Akiyama questioned. "What would you have us do now?"

"I should think that obvious. Fight. Fight until there is only one of you standing. Then come to me. There is a mirror behind each of you. Step through it to return to your world. Don your belt if you wish to immediately throw yourself into it."

And so twelve men returned to the real world, and the last was forced out of Shiro's paradise in a pocket. Everything was ready. The pieces could move of their own accord now. Shiro, disintegrated, moving to somewhere else in his world cast in glass, with his palace falling behind him.

Asakura swung at the man next to him when they exited the Mirror World. Not because he knew who the man was, but because this war was going to be fun, and he wanted it started _now_. As it turned out, Akiyama didn't take kindly to being swung at, and caught Asakura square in the chest with his fist in retaliation. Asakura was about to respond in kind when an ear-splitting screech shot through the group. They looked around, but there was no one but them in the area. Kanzaki had been good with his placement, they had to give him that. Kitaoka was the first to see it. The Man in the Mirror was, as his name would imply, standing in the mirror. A silhouette was all they could see. He removed his pitch-black buckle from somewhere on his body and a belt appeared about his waist, and he went through the motion of sliding it into place. The others took no time picking up the meaning of his pantomime. They all transformed, accepting his challenge, all but Shinji, who still seemed set on pacifism. So the Man in the Mirror accomplished two things at once. He pulled a card from his deck. Or, what appeared to be a card. Its face was reflective, and he held it up across from Shinji. Then, having reflected him, he slid it into his belt, and suddenly Shinji was seeing what he should see in a mirror. Himself. Except the reflection was fighting on its own, donning the black armor of Ryuga, it tossed aside Scissors and Verde while Knight and Ouja dueled and Zolda and Raia and Taiga and Femme and Gai and Imperer and Abyss fought in a frenzied mess, a blur of bodies. Shinji rose to the black rider's bait, transformed, and threw himself into the mirror. Emerging on the other side, he rushed at Ryuga, only to be sent flying backwards by a missed attack of Ouja's. Ryuki was promptly absorbed into the melee and emerged minutes later, as tired and battered as anyone. Scissors and Verde seemed the worst off, and Ryuga was eyeing them. Ryuga pulled out the card for his final vent, only to hear a disembodied voice shout from the heavens, "Steal Vent!" The card vanished from his hand as the same voice declared the next attack. Ryuga barely had time to respond, and took the bicycling kicks of Ouja's vent in his side as he tried to turn around. Ryuga did not rise immediately, but no one could capitalize. They were forced, for their own safety, from the Mirror World. They'd learned a lesson that day. Pick their fights. And Ryuga already knew who he wanted next. He could venture into the human world, as they could venture into his. No one said riders had to die while they were transformed. And, it should be remembered, reflections could be patient.


	2. Chapter I:  Scissors

Kamen Rider Scissors, Masahi Sudou, was absolutely gleeful. In the week since the battle royale in. . . well, no one quite knew where that was, but in the week following, his life had never been easier. Volcancer proved to be surprisingly complaint, at least when properly fed. And, it turned out, Volcancer was perfectly happy with prey that Sudou had killed, which just made the carrying out of some of his more deviant habits that much easier. What's more, he'd had another stroke of luck, recently. He'd been placed in charge of investigating one of his own crimes. Life just kept getting better.

And things continued getting better from there. That piercing screech that Kanzaki had programmed into the mirror world returned. It was an old friend, by now. It meant he had a chance to feed and strengthen Volcancer without adding to his. . . missing persons list. Yes, he decided, that was the proper way to refer to it. He bolted from his station, hopped on his motorcycle, and sped off towards the source of the noise. So far, oddly, he'd never encountered another rider at these points. There were times where they'd come on gone before he'd arrived, but the presences were never coincident. The rule of thumb held again. The creature, some sort of gazelle looking thing, pulled a passerby into the glass face of a building as Sudou arrived. Sudou hopped off his bike and hurried after the thing. Forgetting that it was a window, not a mirror, that he faced, he transformed in the middle of a fairly busy street. Panic would prevent the people on the other sidewalk, there were none on this side for obvious reasons, from seeing him. He donned his orange armor and stepped through the glass into the mirror world.

It was always disconcerting to be in the mirror world. The absolute lack of people would have been chilling if one dwelled on it, but one never had time to give it much thought. The gazelle creature lunged at him, and he managed to throw himself out of the way as the thing flew past him. He summoned Volcancer into battle, and the voice of god, that thing that Kanzaki seemed to have integrated into the mirror world, announced the orange creature's arrival. It did the same when his claw descended to arm his non-venting hand. He let Volcancer work the thing over a bit before he joined the fight himself, using the claw primarily as a slashing weapon. Things, it seemed, didn't bleed in the mirror world. Skin became an impenetrable armor, but he expected internal damage was still done. It stood to reason, if he ever stopped to think about it. The reflection couldn't be changed while there was nothing on the other side producing it. After battering the creature for a few minutes, he set up for his final vent. But, before he could extract his card, a deeper, corrupted version of the voice sounded, still declaring a final vent. Apparently the attacker was behind the gazelle, because Sudou didn't see it. The creature exploded and Scissors was caught in the blast. Honestly, that part didn't make sense. But then, the whole premise of this world didn't make sense, so he ignored it, and turned his attention to the other rider. This was a first, and, judging by the looks of it, not opportune occurence.

So, suddenly, things were not going quite so well for Sudou.

The figure in black laughed at him, but said nothing. Ryuga, Sudou remembered. Ryuga was the name of his enemy. Sudou thought about running, he remembered that this rider had been one of the ones to stand strong amongst the melee, it and two others, a purple figure and a different black figure had themselves during the pell-mell. And, as Sudou remembered, all three of them had beaten him around throughout the fight. Still, he had to fight, or he'd lose Volcancer's loyalty. So he stood, and readied himself.

The laughter returned. "Sudou? You think you can fight me?" The Man in the Mirror sank into a fighting stance, "I guess that means there's only eleven more I need to worry about." He ran a card through his visor, and the corrupted voice announced the descent of his sword. He waited, giving Sudou the chance to lead. When Sudou refused to start, Ryuga charged. Volcancer, Sudou noticed too late, could not be relied upon to save him, as he and Dragblacker were already dueling. He couldn't turn his attention to the spectacle and promptly brought up his claw to block Ryuga's swing and was forced backwards. Ryuga's next strike caught Sudou on his leg, dropping him to one knee. The next one caught him across the back of the neck. Sudou knew right then and there he'd have been dead in the real world, but here he just fell forward, and Ryuga stepped on his back, pushing him into the ground and grinding into the other man's back with his foot.

Not this early. It was too early in the war for him to die. He was Masahi Sudou, and he never lost. He'd never been caught. But this was different, he admitted. Unfortunately, this was different. He couldn't sweep this under the rug. He couldn't make it seem that this never happened. This was a contest of strength, not wits. He swore to himself as he felt his chances of survival being eroded away with each shift of Ryuga's weight.

A primal scream sliced through the air, but Sudou didn't notice, in his desperation, that it came from well away from him and Ryuga. He then heard the proper Mirror Voice, announcing the descent of a weapon. Suddenly the weight of Ryuga was no longer there, and Scissors gasped for air he didn't know he'd lost. He rose, slowly, to see Ouja and Ryuga dueling. It occurred to him, then, that he wasn't going to be given another chance to escape, so he stumbled to the nearest mirror, praying that Volcancer didn't turn on him as Kanzaki had threatened. The creature didn't. In fact it seemed like the thing was ready, having left Venosnaker and Dragblacker to duel between themselves, to throw him out of the mirror world itself if he was stupid enough to throw himself back into the fight..

Still, Sudou couldn't detach himself enough to leave. His curiosity as to who the victor would be, combined with his hurt, though unbroken, leg, kept him standing there, gazing into the storefront. Ouja and Ryuga were _almost_ evenly matched. Ryuga seemed to hold a slight edge, but the two were battering away at each other. As time passed, the battle remained deadlocked. Five minutes passed, and Ouja began to flicker. He continued fighting, or tried to. Apparently, Ouja didn't know about the time limit. After one particularly violent exchange, the two staggered apart, and Ouja was suddenly thrown backwards, struck by Venosnaker's tail, and was knocked back through the same window which Sudou had used to enter.

Sudou tried to run, but couldn't. He started to stagger away, but Asakura recovered more quickly than expected. Sudou cursed at himself. He was a cop. He should have known better than to stay close to Asakura for that long. Asakura grabbed him by the back of his shirt and bodily dragged him away.

Asakura shoved him into a nearby alleyway. Two or three blocks away, Sudou supposed. This wasn't a part of town that he spent much time in. His instincts told him that he'd be hard pressed to find a fellow policeman around here. Not that they'd help him. Not alone. Not fast enough. Everyone on the force knew to fear Asakura. Any one who saw them would call for back up first, as well he should. Still, that meant that if Asakura wanted to do something to Sudou, he would have more than enough time to do it.

So he was surprised when Asakura asked, "You're a crooked cop, aren't you Sudou?"

"What makes you think that I'm a cop?"

"I've seen your face before. I think I may have killed one of your partners. Or maybe you helped bring me in before Kanzaki let me out."

Sudou racked his memory. Asakura was right. He'd done both. Great. Now Asakura had something to hold against him. More than just being an opposing warrior. "No, I don't think so."

Asakura's response to that was a punch to the gut. No one ever accused him of subtlety. At least not twice. "A good cop wouldn't have been there to fight the Gazelle. You've got better things to do, like look for me. And you didn't even know I was around."

Asakura had a good instincts, Sudou decided. "You're right. I helped put you away. So, you plan on killing me now, or killing me in the mirror world?"

"Kill you? No, wouldn't be fun. No challenge. I'm going to follow you. Torment you. That'll be interesting. Having a cop squirming under my thumb. See you around." He smacked Sudou's head into the wall and then pushed him to the floor, having knocked him out, and transformed and stepped into the mirror world. He left elsewhere, and began reasserting himself as the king of the wastelands.

Sudou awoke a few hours later. He'd been right. No fellow cops had found him. Still, he was fine. He thought. No, he knew it. Asakura had said he wouldn't kill him, so there was no reason to worry about that. He made his way to his feet, his head having taken over the job of radiating pain; his knee was feeling fine. That armor protected him better than he'd given it credit for. He made his way to his motorcycle and from there back to the station. He waved off questions and ignored most of his coworkers as he came in. He heard someone talking, one of the 110 receptionists. "You say you saw an orange creature walk into a mirror? Yes ma'am, we'll be sure to send someone right over." The receptionist hung up, obviously under stress. She caught him looking at her, "We've got a lot of calls about a strange creature in that area, but this is the first time it was orange. I hope this one's just a prank caller, or we've got two on our hands."

Sudou's mind raced. Of course, he'd been clumsy. He'd transformed in front of a window. He was lucky she hadn't seen the transformation, or at least had the sense not to say anything about watching a man morph into an armored creature. "Yeah. I'll check it out for you, that way we don't pull anyone away from their stations for a hoax." She thanked him and gave him the information he'd need to find the woman.

Sudou rushed out, adrenaline pumping through him. He'd feel the effects of the long day later, but for now, he had to save his own skin. While it wouldn't automatically tell his coworkers what he'd been doing, it would make the war public. But, then again, maybe he could use that to his advantage. As a policeman, public support would be behind him.

He thought as he drove. Making the war public would make it very hard for Asakura to keep Sudou under his thumb. That would be an easy solution. The news would give him all the information he could need on his targets. It would allow him to paint himself as the police's golden boy, fighting for the wish so he could use it to deal out justice and help those who fought against the creatures that preyed upon the innocent. Yes, he thought, smirking inwardly, he could use this.

She was smart. She'd elected to meet him at that same cross street, which was once again filled with people. Out in public, she'd be a harder target to find if the 'creature' came back for her. He approached her. "Ms. Aizawa, I'm Masahi Sudou, from the local police department, you called about an orange creature?" She looked at him, her face scrunched up like she was trying to place him. So he asked her again, to make her start talking, "You are Ms. Aizawa, aren't you?"

She recognized him, slowly backing up. Fearfully, she cried out, "Y-you're the creature! Get away from me!" She started to run but he grabbed her by the wrist. He would risk making a scene. As a policeman, he'd be forgiven. "Ma'am, I'm not what you seem to think I am. I'm a police officer, I'm here to help you." She continued to struggle until he showed her his badge. At that point, whether she trusted him or not, she understood that that meant there wasn't anything she could do either way.

"W-what are you?" Aizawa asked hesitantly.

"I'm a friend." He responded, not quite an outright lie.

"That doesn't answer my question." The young lady seemed to have overcome the initial shock.

"I'm a police officer. I'm specially outfitted to fight those monsters."

"Oh. Oh!" She seemed accepting of the idea. Now she laid her bait. "Well, I'm sorry to have been a waste of your valuable time, officer, I'll go home now, and let you go hunt more of those monster."

He fumed. She was much too compliant. "Wait! We still need you to come down to the station and explain what you saw. You'll need to sign a non-disclosure agreement." This woman was too stupid to waste time on. No, he was the stupid one. He'd used the wrong story. Too many complications. Or, maybe he could still salvage this. "You see, we can't admit to the public that these creatures exist. Not yet. We need more people who are able to fight them."

"So you're the only policeman that can fight these monsters? How can you expect me to sleep at night if I don't give people a chance to fight for themselves?" She didn't let it show, but she regretted the quick change of tone. She may have been over playing her character. Still, he hadn't noticed anything so far.

"Just come down to the station with me, and we'll work things out there."

"No way, people need to know about this!"

"How dare you! You'd rather satisfy your own sense of righteousness than let this city live in peace?"

"Yes!" The young girl's reply was adamant.

He sighed, outwardly. Inwardly, though, he rejoiced. Good, she was going public. The papers would paint him a hero, whatever they said about the police force. "Ma'am, if you go to the press, there will be repercussions." She scoffed and brushed past him as she left. She didn't get far. Asakura seemed to materialize out of the same alleyway he'd dragged Sudou into before. He grabbed her arm with one hand and produced an orange vent deck from her coat with the other.

"You're an idiot, Sudou. You didn't recognize the only female rider? I've half a mind to keep this," Asakura taunted. The woman seemed to recognize him, but reacted oddly. It wasn't fear that morphed her features, it was hate. Pure, abject hatred.

Sudou's reply was simple, Asakura had made his motivations perfectly clear, "But what's the fun in that?"

Asakura, tossing Miho aside, gave him the reply he wasn't looking for. "Oh, it would be very amusing to watch Volcancer eat you." He relished the look of terror that crossed Sudou's face, before saying, "But not yet. Maybe next time." He tossed the deck back to Sudou and turned to face the girl. "Now, what did I do to you?"

Sudou hated Asakura. He'd hated Asakura before, and it was worse now. But he could put that aside and accept Asakura as something of an ally, if that's what Asakura wanted. At least Asakura didn't have anything to hold over his head. And Asakura hadn't, until Sudou had has deck back. Then, Asakura saw the murder in Sudou's eyes. Sudou probably thought he'd concealed that. Then, Asakura had turned on the girl.

"You bastard," Miho spat. "You bastard, you don't even remember killing her, do you?"

Asakura's response was indifferent, "I've killed lots of people."

Miho's fury got the better of her, and she rushed him. Asakura brushed her aside and into to Sudou. The two fell in a heap but quickly retook their feet. Asakura beckoned the two into the alley, giving them a glimpse of the deck in his pocket. The two didn't have to be instructed twice.

Sudou didn't have to check for his deck, he felt the absence of its weight. "You, girl, Aizawa, give me back my deck."

Asakura was already out of earshot, Miho hoped, "Aizawa? There's no Aizawa. I'm Miho Kirishima, and you can have your deck back if you have to agree to help me kill him." He nodded his acceptance of her terms, and she handed it back to him. It was the only time she'd be so nice.

They met him in the alleyway, standing above broken glass. The three transformed, and suddenly Kirishima, Sudou, and Asakura were no longer there. In the mirror world, they were Femme, Scissors, and Ouja. And all would happily murder the others.

Leaving no time for weapons, Ouja rushed Femme immediately. Well, no weapons for them. Too bad. While they fought, Sudou had time to call on Volcancer and his Scissors Pincer. Volcancer attacked Ouja while Scissors attacked Femme. "You-" she began, but he cut her off.

"Do you want my help now, when he's fresh, or later, when I can disrupt his Final Vent?" In response, she threw him off of her and called down Blancwing, which, along with Volcancer, kept Venosnaker busy. Volcancer made a show of fighting both of the other two mirror creatures, in an attempt to keep Ouja fooled, but seemed to be possessed of no accuracy when it came to Blancwing, and Blancwing seemed the same with regards to Volcancer.

Ouja's Venosaber was far more accurate, landing blows on both Scissors and Femme as the two fought him and missed each other, for the most part, anyway. The battle wore on for four minutes with no significant advantage being afforded to anyone. That is, until Scissors dropped the charade. Asakura blocked Femme's Blanc Visor, but Scissor's pincer caught him dead in the facemask. As he reeled, Femme's Visor came down across his arm, and Scissors swung at his leg. This last move failed, as Ouja avoided it by kicking Scissors square in the chest. As pulled her final vent, she fell prey to an old counter. He ran the steal vent through his Veno Visor, now holstered on the left side of his hip, and ripped the card from her grasp. He used her Final Vent card and landed the kicks on her as Scissors recovered, then used his own on the man in orange.

The Mirror Monsters were done fighting, Blancwing and Volcancer showing enough intelligence to drag their battered partners out of the Mirror World. Sudou was the better off of the two, and he managed to drag himself to sitting position, leaning against the wall. Then, he did what he always did to people who knew too much. "Volcancer, get rid of her," he ordered into the mirror." He was shocked when nothing happened. Upon looking into the broken glass, he saw what he would never have expected. Venosnaker and Blacwing, both, were threatening him. Good Volcancer, he thought, thanking the creature's loyalty. That aside, why was Venosnaker protecting Miho?

"Asakura, why would you protect her?" He managed to gasp out.

"Same reason as you. Short war wouldn't be fun." He replied, as if it should have been obvious. "But now I have what I needed. I know what you do." His tone turned suddenly admonishing, as an expert giving obvious advice to a novice. "You're a poor criminal though, wiping things clean behind you. There's no fun in that. So, from now on, you're going to leave something behind, or I will for you." With that, he walked away. But Venosnaker didn't, making Sudou realize that Asakura, that bastard, always had his eyes on him.


	3. Chapter 2: Raia

Author's Note: I apologize for the delay between this and the last issue. Now that real world things have been dealt with, it's my goal to upload one chapter a week, hopefully on Wednesday, until this story has finished. Also, before you even start this chapter, I want to remind everyone that this is not the universe that the Ryuki show took place in. The characters will be different, but hopefully close to their original selves, though they will be more and more different as I get further through the chapters and they are affected by events that never took place in the original. Anyway, that aside, here's the second chapter!

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Kamen Rider Raia, Miyuki Tezuka, was looking into the mirror. He blinked and then turned to take in his surroundings. He had no idea where he was. He didn't even know when he was. He checked his back pocket. His deck was there. So he'd met with Kanzaki already. He pulled out his phone, checked the date. He cursed. That was enough to know that he was watching somewhen he hadn't seen yet. That was his life. Watching, not living. To call it living would be a lie. Life is continuous, and he doubted any other man had memories as jumbled as his. Very few could explain their motives with the statement, "Because I did," and be absolutely honest.

"Tezuka, come on!" Shinji shouted. Tezuka had absolutely no idea what was going on, but followed. At no point had he or would he learn to mistrust Shinji. He was the only man of the lot that he could trust without knowing the when. So Tezuka followed.

They were running down the streets towards something. A faint noise started to assault his ears, the shrill noise that accompanied mirror monsters. How had Shinji heard it from so far away? Whatever. This was the competent Shinji. Gai must be dead by now. Or was that the other way around? He shook himself out of it when he saw Shinji come to a halt. The screeching was tearing at his brain now, but he couldn't see where it was coming from.

It wasn't until Shinji pulled his buckle from his back pocket that he saw the shattered glass on the ground, with Knight, Taiga, Imperer, Verde and Abyss all going after each other. As Shinji stepped into one of the shards, Tezuka paused. He'd been here before, but people were missing, which meant. . . nothing. He'd woken up with everyone accounted for, but he'd woken up in the middle of action before and no doubt would again. He pulled his buckle and transformed, stepping into the mirror. Six more, but no deaths. A fair trade, he supposed. Not that he had a say in the matter. He'd already done this. Or would do it. Ouja's sword pulled him from his thoughts moments after he arrived in the mirror world. He took it to his hand, managing the redirectly the blade away from his body and knocking Ouja just far enough out of balance for Raia to get out of the way of the second attack. At least, Ouja's next attack. He felt a sharp pain in his back and tumbled forward, caught a kick from Ouja and rolled into the legs of another rider. Knight, he saw, as he made his way to his feet. There they were. The other six must have been fighting their own battle. Two lines had been formed, with eight standing against five.

Now he knew what was happening. Raia stood alongside Ryuki, Knight, Femme, Scissors, Zolda, Imperer, and Taiga across from Abyss, Ouja, Ryuga, Verde, and Gai. It seemed that everyone was willing to observe the typical nicety. They waited, and everyone was given time to draw their weapons. The voice spoke over itself as weapons fell from the sky, and everyone made themselves ready. He could hear the cries of mirror beasts in the distance, and Knight made the first move. He rushed across no-man's land and was intercepted by Ryuga, who also picked up Ryuki as an opponent. Ouja took on Femme and Scissors. Abyss fought Imperer, Gai fought against Zolda and Taiga, while Raia took on Verde.

Raia and Verde quickly realized that their whips would be useless, knotting with each other and reducing their fight to a tug-of-war. Raia tossed his aside and Verde had to follow, to keep from throwing himself off balance. Raia landed a punch on Verde's faceplate and one to his chest, to which Verde quickly retaliated with two blows of his own. Tezuka thought he knew what was coming next. After two more blows, Verde's third strike threw Tezuka to the ground.

And Tezuka was staring into a mirror. No faceplate, so he didn't panic. Well, not immediately, anyway. There was someone with him. Someone was talking to him. He couldn't quite figure out who it was. This must be further forward than he'd ever been flung before. Then Tezuka realized that he was speaking back to the man, though he wasn't quite sure what he was saying. This was strange. He was used to the bewilderment that came from the transition. He was used to the focus that came with going through the same event twice, doing things because he knew he'd done them earlier or later. But this was different. He was just watching. That's when the voice clicked. It was Saito. But what was Saito doing talking to him in the future? Saito was dead. Tezuka remembered having to watch as Saito died, as he was murdered by one of Kanzaki's beasts. So what was going on?

Tezuka felt like a third party. It was almost as if he was standing with Miyuki Tezuka and Yuichi Saito, listening to the two, but unable to do anything. Except he was viewing this through his own eyes, so that wasn't it. Then an idea struck him. Saito was back, and there was only one way that could be the case. Tezuka realized that he must have won the war. Somehow he must have overcome Ren and Shinji and Asakura and claimed his wish, the revival of his friend.

The idea didn't last long, as he started to recognize his surroundings. This was too familiar to be the future. But, he was a fortuneteller; all he saw was the future. He'd never been projected back into the past. Still, that's what this looked like. Asakura would be along shortly. He would kick Tezuka to the ground and slam Saito into the wall. Then, he'd take whatever money the two had, and beat them up and down the street, just for fun. The spiral fractures that Asakura would give Yuichi doomed his career as a pianist. Tezuka was not as badly beaten, having been lucky enough to avoid the worst of Asakura's sadism. And that's exactly what happened. They were walking down that same street, with every fiber of Tezuka screaming to stop, to do something, but he had absolutely no control over the past's Miyuki. He was doomed to sit and watch. And he did. It wasn't until the fifth crack of a spiral fracture that he was once again looking into a mirror, the mark of the transfer.

He screamed, and his body jerked as he regained control of it and everything he'd been trying to do laying on the ground was done while standing upright. He fell to the floor, but quickly righted himself. He pulled out his phone. He didn't recognize the date. He may have been around this when before, but he wasn't sure. He stood up and found himself alone. He made his way back home. He needed time to think, and had no idea just how much he had.

He dropped himself down at his table, resting his head in his hands and arms on the table, and started working around with what he knew. He was a fortuneteller, and a purer one than anyone would believe. He saw people's futures. He could read other people's, with practice. His own future, he'd always seen. Whether he wanted to or not, he saw snatches of things and was forced to move on. He felt like an actor, sometimes, following a script that'd been printed out of order. But he'd never, ever, seen events that had already occurred. He may experience the same events multiple times, but never had he seen the past. Of course, he realized, he may just be operating on a false assumption. Maybe he wasn't as far along in his life as he thought he was. No, he decided, that seemed unlikely. If he saw events repeatedly, there was a certain amount of regularity to them and then he would pass them by on the timeline, and they ceased recurring. It had been months since he'd last seen that image, and he'd never been a simple onlooker before. He'd also never felt the impulse to try to do anything differently before this time. Maybe the two were related. He wasn't sure he'd ever figure out which caused which.

He gave a sigh of disgust with his situation. He let the thoughts roll around in his head as he went through his daily routine. He got through much more of it than usual. He counted himself lucky, this time. Night fell and he remained in this present. Well, this point in time. Present is an empty word. He'd remained in this when, he decided, and knew it could not hold for much longer. He lay down to go to sleep. The moment his eyes closed, he jumped. He didn't know that he'd ever gone to sleep and woken up the next day in his entire life.

He was, as always, looking in a mirror, but this time, there was something different about the image. Shinji was there. He turned to look at Shinji, but couldn't find him. Still, the reflection didn't lie. He looked back at the mirror, and Shinji was smirking, looking dead at him. It was then that Tezuka remembered the first battle. The creature in the mirror that stole Kido's visage must be what was staring back at him. He pulled his deck, the obvious response to the thing's presence, but it motioned for him to put it away. It then pointed behind him, and Tezuka realized that in his distraction he didn't even know where he was. The in an electronics store, he quickly realized, and had been staring into the screen of an unplugged TV which he assumed had been left out by Ryuga for this very purpose. He looked where Ryuga wanted him to, and at first thought nothing of it. It was a TV that was currently showing the news. The current story was run of the mill. A man was facing charges for the murder of Itsuro Takamizawa. It wasn't until he saw the picture of the killer that he realized the magnitude of it. Shinji Kido was wanted for the murder of Itsuro Takamizawa. His eyes widened and he turned back to Ryuga, whose smirk had turned itself into a knowing sneer. He opened his mouth, and, in addition to the shriek caused by mirror monsters, there were words. "Two enemies at the cost of one. You should be thanking me."

Then Ryuga was gone and the mirror was different. This one was an actual mirror, not just glass. He was at home. He was shaking. He wasn't sure if that was because of what he'd just heard, in his timeline, or what he'd been doing before the flash. He found it hard to contain his fury. Throughout this war, or as much as Tezuka had seen, Shinji had always been unwilling to resort to underhanded tactics. He'd been honest to a fault and, even though Tezuka knew that Shinji's survival stood in the way of wishing back Saito, Tezuka knew that this was not the way to eliminate him. Sentimentality aside, Shinji could be counted on to be honest, and could be trusted to stand against the more underhanded fighters, and presented a tactical advantage there.

He heard a faint screeching. He made sure he had everything he'd need and left the house at a run. He didn't get there. The next transfer happened midstride, and suddenly what stared back at him in the mirror was not the face of Miyuki Tezuka, but the face of Kamen Rider Raia. He rolled to the side, not knowing where he was or what was going on, but having learned not to stay still when he underwent this kind of transference. As he stood, he found he had his whip in hand and that he was in middle of a battle royale. Not every rider was here, but enough were. Ouja, Ryuga, Taiga, and Imperer were fighting Zolda, Knight, and Ryuki. He heard snatches of conversation, Taiga's declaration that the hero would bring justice to the murderer. That was enough information for Tezuka.

He threw himself at Ryuga, his whip catching Ryuga's sword hand and forcing him to drop the weapon. Knight was outmatched by Ouja, with Ouja landing blows almost at will. Imperer was going after Zolda and was doing a good job of denying Zolda the distance he needed to be effective. Ryuki was being demolished by Taiga. Taiga's claws found their way up and down Ryuki's armor, but Ryuki would not fight back. Tezuka wanted to curse at him for this but this was part of why people respected him. Tezuka himself had a hard time against Ryuga, but held his own. The fight wore on for about a minute, with Raia unable to pay attention to the other riders at the expense of Ryuga, when two words sounded that everyone knew to fear. It was Ouja's final vent. Knight leapt to one side, but Ryuga, having been about to do the same to Raia, used his Bio-Winder to pull Ryuki into the path of it. In a moment similar to the one his vision of the past, Tezuka lost control of his body and interposed himself between Ryuki and Ouja.

The kicks partially landed, as Ryuga had not quite managed to put Ryuki in the same spot Ryuki had been in earlier. The blow was not fatal, but it bought time. Zolda had had time to play his card, and now had his finger on the trigger. "Get out, and leave my client with me." No one was dumb enough to question him, and all left. All except Raia, who was thought to be dead. Tezuka staggered to his feet with about a thirty seconds left until the flickering started. Unfortunately, he'd been there too long. Ouja was back. Raia barely had time to hear the scream when he felt the impact on his faceplate, when he saw the mask splintering when-

-he was looking into a mirror. His heart was pounding. He had just seen how he would die. But he had no objections to it. He would realize, later, that he'd misdiagnosed the situation. He'd never lost control of his body. He'd chosen to do something because he had, subconsciously, realized that Shinji was the only man worthy of winning the war. He'd seen more of the war at this point than anyone. So he'd decided. So he'd died. But not yet. That would come later, even though it had already happened. He looked in the mirror, and there was Shinji. Again there was no one to cast the reflection. Again, the knowing smile.


End file.
